"Two Ways to Belong in America"

In a personal essay, Bharati Mukherjee shares the reasons for the different views she and her sister have about the status of immigrants in America. Look through this list to decide which side of the debate you might be on.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 10 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: What Is Cultural Identity, Ethnic Hash, Two Kinds, Honestly Frida, Legal Alien, By Any Other Name, HAPA, Where Worlds Collide, My Mother Pieced Quilts, Everyday Use, Two Ways to Belong in America, An Indian Father's Plea
10 words 8 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. acquire
    come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
    They soon acquired the labor certifications necessary for the green card of hassle-free residence and employment.
  2. quota
    a prescribed number
    Because of the accident of his North Dakota birth, I bypassed labor-certification requirements and the race-related "quota" system that favored the applicant's country of origin over his or her merit.
  3. renounce
    cast off
    By choosing a husband who was not my father's selection, I was opting for fluidity, self-invention, blue jeans and T-shirts, and renouncing 3,000 years (at least) of caste-observant, "pure culture" marriage in the Mukherjee family.
  4. retain
    secure and keep for possible future use or application
    we'd had our polite arguments over the ethics of retaining an overseas citizenship while expecting the permanent protection and economic benefits that come with living and working in America
  5. discretion
    the trait of judging wisely and objectively
    But, now, with the scapegoating of "aliens" (documented or illegal) on the increase, and the targeting of long-term legal immigrants like Mira for new scrutiny and new self-consciousness, she and I find ourselves unable to maintain the same polite discretion.
  6. manipulate
    control in a fraudulent manner
    I feel manipulated and discarded. This is such an unfair way to treat a person who was invited to stay and work here because of her talent.
  7. curtail
    place restrictions on
    If America wants to make new rules curtailing benefits of legal immigrants, they should apply only to immigrants who arrive after those rules are already in place.
  8. divergence
    a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions
    In one family, from two sisters alike as peas in a pod, there could not be a wider divergence of immigrant experience.
  9. expatriate
    a person who is voluntarily absent from home or country
    America spoke to me--I married it--I embraced the demotion from expatriate aristocrat to immigrant nobody, surrendering those thousands of years of "pure culture," the saris, the delightfully accented English.
  10. trauma
    an emotional wound or shock having long-lasting effects
    The price that the immigrant willingly pays, and that the exile avoids, is the trauma of self-transformation.
Created on Wed Oct 08 16:02:46 EDT 2014 (updated Wed Oct 08 18:13:28 EDT 2014)

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